Weekend Plans...

This weekend involves playing with some new toys. First up, the new Magic: the Gathering set (Gatecrash) dropped today/yesterday (it's way late as I write this). Sales for the set, despite the initial downward buzz I heard prior to today, have been *EXCEPTIONALLY* strong. The booster draft and sealed that happened at the store tonight had a large amount of excited and happy players. I like those kind of players... They make my life much easier...

The other new toy I plan to play with this weekend is Fractal Mapper 8.1. It's mapping software designed for the diagramming of campaign worlds and elements. My initial pass-through has been favorable, though I will admit to only a casual perusal thus far. My first thoughts are that it seems easier to use than Campaign Cartographer 2 PRO, which was good, but had a *VERY* high learning curve. Anywho... I plan to futz around with it and dig a bit deeper into what it can do... I'm hoping I can pick it faster than CC2, and my experience with the previous program means that while I may have to un-learn some things, it should overall be easier to get up and running.

Now... now it is 3:40AM or so, and I must bed, as I have to be up at the store by 11AM.

'Night all...

-- GopherDave

Next Blog Challenge...

Okay... another convention survived. Yes, I still have the head cold, but it is getting better...

Looking over the blog the last few months, I have noticed my regular postings have dropped off considerably. It makes sense, what, with me (and by extension, the store) getting ready for a convention and all. However, it has got me wondering "what next"?

The blog was started as a self-accountability tool for a wardrobe upgrade. For the most part, it has done that nicely, but a man can only post so many pictures of his chest/neck area before boredom begins to set in. So, what can I do in terms of tracking a challenge to keep people interested in what goes on here?

Weight loss tracking? Seems good. I need to lose weight. I was down to 285 pounds or so when life bit me in the back side. Now I'm back up to 310 pounds and am in danger of chewing on a C-Pap mask for the rest of my life if I don't make some drastic changes. When the weather gets warmer, I might buy an actual bicycle again. I should only induce about half-a-dozen heart attacks in myself trying to ride it. =P

Game design challenge? Ha-ha... HA-HA-ha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... No. Not happening. I figured out that when pressured to write, nothing really happens that moves the game forward. Plus, I barely have time to do what I currently do in gaming. I need to pile on a plate of "extra-fail" like I need to gain another twenty pounds.

Ehhh... anyway... who knows... Just mostly posting today to let folks know that I'm still not dead... =P

-- GopherDave

Not Dead Yet...

Okay...

I went into the convention suffering from lack of sleep and some ConCrud/Head Cold variant. Came out of the convention with a lack of sleep and a ConCrud/Head Cold variant, but I had run four successful events over the weekend.

Like I feared, the system (DICEBAG) made some folks go into vapor-lock looking at the character sheet initially. There's a LOT going on in terms of information on the sheet, and it just sort of front-loads the confusion for new players. However, once we got started, and people got what I was aiming for with the system, they picked up things fairly quickly.

Once things were finished, I had received a fair number of compliments about how things flowed and the mechanics worked. That is encouraging. If, by next year, I can get the first draft of a complete core bore written, there are a number of people I'd like to pass it onto to do some more testing.

As for the after-Con, I took Monday off due to illness. I was back at the store today, though, and in uniform. No pictures as I had a family emergency pull me away from the store a bit early, but after around two months of very hit-and-miss compliance, I should be ramping up back to full necktie-wearing uniform standards fairly soon...

-- GopherDave

SRSLY..?

Just knocked out rules for Poisons, Automatic Weapons, and multiple attacks in the same round for DICEBAG (all things I had bonked on for roughly five years). It's late, and I have a doctor's visit in just under seven hours, but I am amped that progress is being made and I'm not quite ready to go to sleep

Why does my brain do this to me?

-- GopherDave

Not Actually Striving For Radio Silence...

Hey...

Just an update... made a mental breakthrough and progress is being made on the convention games. Psionics are up and running, and Weapons are being statted out as needed. I need to make a "print-out" run and get started with characters.

Things will be done...

-- GopherDave

Progress...

You know that caption a couple of days ago about ties I had never worn that were lost in a bag for two years? Yep. This is another one of those...

Okay, I'm not entirely certain if the Vitamin D infusion is working. I have only taken dose thus far (it was a *HUGE* dose, though), but things seems to be, for lack of a better phrase, looking up. It is just over two weeks until the convention and I am MEGA-behind on work, but progress has been made.

Last night, I reskinned mechanics for a very setting-dependant magic system into a less setting-dependant psionics system. I still need to do power listings, but the frame work is there, and I only need a few abilities to cover the scenarios I'm doing for the convention. Once I get a handle on those, I'm going to sit down and sketch out some weapons and armor specifications that include things *NOT* found in a run-of-the-mill fantasy game. Copies of Boot Hill, Top Secret, and Star Frontiers just fell into my lap. Combine that with fact I already own SpaceMaster, Shadowrun, and Deadlands, and I have enough reference material to knock what I need out of the park in short order.

Then I will make player characters, NPCs, monsters, and maps. The maps will take the longest time, but I have a couple of ideas on how to shorten that...

It all seems downhill from here... =)

-- GopherDave

*BONK*

Blogger was going bonk early Friday morning and would not let me upload pictures. Turns out it was an issue with Internet Explorer. One quick switch to Google Chrome for a few moments, and the problem was worked around, but not with enough time to actually post something before my day started...

...Then the day hit...

Friday was one of those days where if I could mentally have it back, I would do so in a heartbeat. It was one thing after another, beginning with a can of root beer and gravity conspiring to attack Skribl, to shipments that were supposed to be here yesterday and shipments that were not due for another couple of days all hitting at once, to some customers who were less than decisive on what they wanted (I was patient, but it was wearing thin quickly), and a couple of other shenanigans, it made for a mentally taxing day.

It is 3AM Saturday as I write this. I have to be back at the store in eight hours. There is still a metric crap-tonne of work waiting for me when I get there. I also am looking at my schedule and wondering when I am going to have a chance to work on game stuff like I need to.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely *LOVE* what I do for a living and am fully aware that in the grand scheme of careers, mine does not suck. I just hate it when I encounter a day that feels like it was a metaphorical Mack truck in disguise...

-- GopherDave